DF Interview: Kieron Gillen enters the Kirby Kosmos with ‘Eternals’

By Byron Brewer

What's the point of an eternal battle? For millions of years, one hundred Eternals have roamed the Earth, secret protectors of humanity. Without them, we'd be smears between the teeth of the demon-like Deviants. Their war has waged for all time, echoing in our myths and nightmares. But today, Eternals face something new: change. Can they – or anyone on Earth – survive their discovery?

From the minds of Kieron Gillen (The Wicked + The Divine, Uncanny X-Men, Thor) and Esad Ribić (Secret Wars, King Thor) comes a new vision of the classic Marvel mythology. DF wanted to get in on the ground floor, so we sat down with scribe Kieron Gillen.

Dynamic Forces: Kieron, how does it feel to dive deep into a grand Kirby creation, one whose profile will soon raise as an iteration of the Eternals (hopefully) hits the movie screen?

Kieron Gillen: Exciting, but also has a series of interesting pressures. It’s my first time touching something that’s solely Kirby’s creation. I’m aware that it’s the first comic I’ve written which I’ve put “based on the characters created by…” on the title page of all my scripts, which says something about Kirby and makes me wonder why I haven’t been better with that on other scripts. In this case, that it all comes from one creator, and was envisaged as its own standalone thing before being integrated with the Marvel Universe means it’s more on my mind.

But respectful is a loaded one, especially when approaching Kirby. In my career, I’ve often found myself thinking “What would Jack Kirby do?” response to a creative problem. I suspect many people do, but the telling thing about any question like that is that each creative has their own take on that. For me, it always boiled down to “Well, he’d make up a bunch of new stuff.” For me, any simple reconstitution of Kirby would be anti-Kirby. So with Eternals, I’m doing the deep dive into the work and really looking at the gaps in the work and the implicit stories in there, while also adding a bunch of new stuff in the spirit of the ideas in the Eternals. A core of the old with a lot of the new – that’s the Eternals. They’ve been around for the past, and they’ll be there for as long as there’s an Earth.

I’m less worried about the movie pressures. I just want to make sure we have the best, most accessible, biggest book for anyone who is intrigued by the movies.

DF: Give readers your take on these super-beings who have risen and fallen a few times in the Marvel Universe. What will make this iteration of the Eternals different and distinctive?

Kieron Gillen: There’s been a tension in the Eternals based on the fact they’re a standalone concept that has been integrated into a shared universe. The key thing about the Eternals is “they’re a super-science species mistaken by gods, originating all the human myths.” That doesn’t work in the same way in a universe when there’s actual gods. There’s been a lot of creators who have tried to work their way around this, across all the years.

The first thing I do is do a few tweaks on how the Eternals are viewed, coming entirely from the work. Yes, they were mistaken for gods, but if you read the stories, they don’t seem like gods at all. The Celestials are the gods in the metaphor. The Eternals are unchanging, unaging beings created by the gods to protect the Earth, and war against a species of demons. They aren’t gods. What they’re closest to is angels. So, at the most basic level, what the Eternals are is a species of Eternal Van Helsings protecting the Earth from a species of Vampires. That’s the high level – there’s so much grain in there. There’s Eternals who believe the best way to protect the Earth would be to kill everything bar the Eternals, to choose the most extreme example.

Secondly, the scale of it all. People will hit the end of the first issue and realize exactly the scale of the work that’s been done on this. I’ve tried to look at all of Marvel Universe Eternal History and integrate it into its own clean mythology, which just is there.

Thirdly, there’s also the big, awful Marvel Universe heart to them. A fundamental tragedy of being an Eternal, the Uncle Ben of it all. There’s a real sadness I’m trying to work in, which I think people are going to love.

Fourthly, Esad Ribić. ESAD RIBIĆ.

DF: The Eternals did not fare well in their last MU outing, which would be in Jason Aaron’s first arc of The Avengers. (In truth, they were barely seen before they were “dead”.) If you can answer without spoilers, what situation will readers find these characters in as your new Eternals book begins?

Kieron Gillen: It was definitely a bad day for the Eternals. They discovered their entire purpose for being was void and they (er) took it badly.

As shown in the Gaiman/Romita Jr. mini, when Eternals die, they are reformed by the machine that is Earth. That’s what happened. It’s took a significant time, due to the fact all the Eternals needed to be reconstructed… but it’s happened.

This is the equivalent of rebooting your computer to try and get rid of the bugs. This happens to the Eternals more than you’d think.

Ikaris, being the last Eternal to die, is the last to be returned to life, and we follow him discovering what everyone’s been up to.

DF: Will there be any underlying theme to your book? And are there any parts of the characters’ lore that it would be beneficial/necessary for readers to know in picking up Eternals #1?

Kieron Gillen: Speaking generally about my work, if there’s not a theme, I won’t be writing it.

In terms of advance reading, no, nothing essential. The whole point of one of these new number ones is that it’s a clean entry point, for you to enter the world. As much as it’s built upon their whole history in the Marvel Universe, it’s very much a first chapter for everyone.

If you want to dabble in the Eternals, the two main things to look at would be Kirby’s original run and the Gaiman/Romita Jr. Eternals mini from the 00s. The first work, and the most recent work.

DF: Usually there are certain standout members of the Eternals that take the story spotlight. Which will be the main protagonists of this run? (I believe you have mentioned a fondness for Sersi?)

Kieron Gillen: I do like Sersi. I’ve kept her off stage until issue 2, as I know that I’ll likely let her take over the plot otherwise.

The Eternals is very much that Game of Thrones big scale book – I’m very much interested in the groupings of the Eternals, and how they see each other, and how they’ve disagreed over the last million years. But I also know that having 100 lead characters is impossible, and we need a way into their world.

Our initial leads are Ikaris and Sprite. As said earlier, Ikaris was last to die. The last time we saw Sprite, he almost destroyed all the Eternals, and was murdered by Zuras as punishment. As such, when she reformed – as a she, as Eternals occasionally change their forms – she’s been excluded from Eternal society, and has only just been readmitted. So it’s with these two, we discover the Eternal society, and have the rest introduced. We’re in no rush. Eternals is a society, not a team.

DF: Without revealing too much, can you tell us the overall storyline of your first arc? Where are the Eternals as a whole, or the individuals upon which you will focus, headed in the series?

Kieron Gillen: Bar Ikaris and Sprite, the main Eternals who enter the plot in the first arc would be Zuras, Gilgamesh, Thena, Phastos, Sersi, Kingo and the amazingly awful sneak of sneaks Druig. There’s others with cameos, and some key players (notably, Ajax and Makkari) whose absence is really set up for them arriving in a big way in the second arc. They’ve especially had a lot going on.

The plot is essentially a murder mystery, and if the Eternals don’t solve it, the Earth itself is going to be a victim.

DF: Talk about the astounding artwork of Esad Ribić.

Kieron Gillen: One does not “talk” about the work of Esad. One stares. And if you’re forced to offer an opinion, you don’t talk, but eulogize. This is a book which embraces scale, and Esad is the comic artist working today who most creates vistas. He’s the biggest special effects budget in comics. That’s going to be the first thing people get, but it’s also so much about the details – he adds a reality to everything. So the cities beneath the South Pole are one thing – but so is the streets in New York. So is the scenes set in the ancient past. It’s all just got this weight, which is absolutely key to the whole endeavor.

I also need to mention Matt Wilson, and his collaboration with Esad is just startling. They’re playing off of each other so well, and the pages are something else.

Actually, while we’re talking about the team I should mention Clayton, who is handling the lettering and design pages for the comic, which is going to give the whole thing a real powerful aesthetic coherence. It’s going to be a hell of a book.

DF: Will we see the Deviants in this mag? The Celestials?!

Kieron Gillen: The Deviants are a core part of the Eternal myth for me, so they’re inevitable. You’ll get a taste in issue one, and the full course in issue 3. The Celestials are another key part of the myth, but I’m keeping them away to begin with, at least in the non-flashback sequences. The rejection of their gods is what drove them all to suicide, so the Celestials being off stage seems key, right?

Dynamic Forces would like to thank Kieron Gillen for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer our questions. Eternals #1 from Marvel Comics is slated to hit stores January 6^th!

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